A-G Weinstein : Legislate the Gemachim

Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein and the Ministry of Justice have come out in favor of legislating the “gemachim” of the hareidi sector (A Gemach is a Jewish free-loan fund which subscribes to both the positive Torah commandment of lending money and the Torah prohibition against charging interest on a loan. Unlike banks, gemach loans are interest-free, and are often set up with easy repayment terms.).

In his letter to the Governor of the Bank of Israel Karnit Flug, and to Minister of Finance Yair Lapid, Weinstein noted that in a 2009 review of these institutions, several irregularities had been discovered in breach of the Banking Law.